Sleeping Beauty Had It Right: How Your Sleep Affects Your Health

Sleep is that golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.

— Thomas Dekker

Photo by Viktor Hanacek

I have always heard that it is important for a lady to get her “beauty rest” but with this generation being all “Team No Sleep”, people are taking pride in staying up all day and all night to work on their dreams. But, what good is accomplishing your goals when you are struggling internally, not even aware of the damage you are doing to your body? So, while I am all about staying on the grind - and wishing there were more than 24 hours in the day - my sleep is something I am no longer willing to compromise. So how does being #TeamNoSleep affect your health? Read on below. When you know better, it is only right to do better!

How Sleep Affects Your Health

Hormones that are needed to grow are primarily produced while we are sleeping, which makes sleep super important for both children and adolescents. Despite your age, our body uses the sleep period to reboot and get ready for the next day. When you deprive your body of this time it actually causes your brain to not be able to function properly. And for all of my late night party crowd; when you are suffering from sleep deprivation the “ drank in your cup” is actually magnified which would put you at a higher risk of harming yourself and others.

The deeper rooted affects of lack of sleep are even more alarming. For those of us who are all about being a member of Team Fit, studies by Harvard Medical School can correlate lack of sleep to weight gain. So you are putting in all of that work in the kitchen and the gym, only to set yourself up for failure all because you can’t sit still and get some sleep, that’s pretty irritating huh?!

Plus with the sporadic weather changes that seem to be happening everywhere, building up your immune system is vital! Those infection fighting antibodies and cells that you need are only produced while you are sleeping and can really give your immune system a boost of energy to aid in fighting off and defending your body against all types of yucky germs.

Lastly, because it is the month of LOVE/ LUST I wouldn’t be your friend if we didn't touch on how not getting enough sleep can negatively affect your sex life. Both sexes can drastically decrease their libidos if they are not getting enough sleep. So, don’t get mad at the new mommy in your life that may not be as engaged in sex as they once were. Instead, give them a little more help and it could go a long way - if you know what I mean.

Photo by Viktor Hanacek

Maybe you knew all of this already. Maybe you didn’t care. Stay tuned for Part II as we take a look at how sleep deprivation affects the outside, for all of my beauty kings and queens. If nobody else cares about you, FitXBrit cares about you!